The American Academy of Family Physicians also has a self-care decision making tool on their familydoctor.org site, with simple decision trees organized by key presenting symptom.

The medical literature includes an increasing volume of discussion about how to improve individuals' health and utilization of health care resources through self-care or self-management strategies (a few key Medical Subject Headings below), covering a wide variety of disease-focused and wellness- focused strategies and representing all age groups.

2 Comments:

You're right..healthcare organizations need to get this information out to their populations before an emergency occurs. Case in point: ironically, while planning my organization's audio conference on reducing non-urgent emergency room use, I learned that my own daughter had been in a minor auto accident. I had to decide whether to take her to the ER that night or wait to see our primary care physician the following day. I feel I made the right call, but the next day posted guidelines for potential ER clients.

Thanks, Patricia - your story gives a great context for remembering how difficult it can be to figure out if something is "serious" enough to warrant a trip to the ED - your suggested steps look like they could really help guide that decision-making process, despite the accompanying anxiety/worry/etc.